A Hell on Earth
	A Near-Drowning			7 of 8

Yoshio Emoto Japanese lieutenant Survived the sinking of the Battleship Yamoto

Suddenly I felt the ship was really sinking and next moment I saw the horizon was coming over my head. The boat was already very much turned into the water. Then I was in a huge stream of the water and deeply into the vortex deep in the sea. I held my breath, but eventually I could not bear it any more and I took breath, then sea water came into my lungs -- and such a pain to have water in the lung. So I thought, "oh, this is the end of my life..." I fainted because of the water in the lung. When I came to my senses I was floating over the sea in the crude oil. There was an enemy fighter plane trying to shoot survivors on the sea. I was very scared. A Japanese destroyer was trying to escape this attack and each time the destroyer made a move, a huge wave came and I swallowed water each time and thought, "oh, what a shame if I lose my life by this, without fighting, drowning to death, that is not what I want."

Read about a Japanese pilot's experience in the war.